David Baer

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Hollywood is as overstuffed with films on aspiring actors as it is actual aspiring actors. So, why one more? Well, Naomi Watts, for one thing. Playing the title role in Ellie Parker, the story of a professionally and emotionally befuddled Hollywood actress, Watts, star of such films as Mulholland Drive, 21 Grams, and The Ring, brings aboard expected depth, charm, and frenetic intensity.

Thing is, it's not enough. There's a decent turn by Rebecca Rigg, as Ellie's realist gal pal Sam. And we do get to hear Watts-as-Ellie rehearse Bronx-bimbo lines like, "Yeah, I sucked his cock!" while frantically stripping off one outfit for the next while in her car in L.A. traffic and on the cellular. But that's all table scraps.

It's Trainspotting by way of Bringing Out the Dead, a cautionary tale of ambulance drivers boiling over in all kinds of drugs. But don't get too excited, because not much of Broken Vessels is very interesting, as co-stars Field and London act like they really are stoned throughout the entire production. See also Permanent Midnight for an example of why this does not a good film make. Plot is nonexistant, and character development is limited to an aborted romantic entanglement. Field mostly sits and stares... which is pretty much what I did while watching this thing.